Things you should know

If a poem hasn’t ripped apart your soul; you haven’t experienced poetry

leaving is not enough; you must stay gone. train your heart like a dog. change the locks even on the house he’s never visited. you lucky, lucky girl. you have an apartment just your size. a bathtub full of tea. a heart the size of Arizona, but not nearly so arid. don’t wish away your cracked past, your crooked toes, your problems are papier mache puppets you made or bought because the vendor at the market was so compelling you just had to have them. you had to have him. and you did. and now you pull down the bridge between your houses, you make him call before he visits, you take a lover for granted, you take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are magic. make the first bottle you consume in this place a relic. place it on whatever altar you fashion with a knife and five cranberries. don’t lose too much weight. stupid girls are always trying to disappear as revenge. and you are not stupid. you loved a man with more hands than a parade of beggars, and here you stand. heart like a four-poster bed. heart like a canvas. heart leaking something so strong they can smell it in the street.

Eventually all things fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moments, and know everything happens for a reason.

Just like so many others, I believe a relationship is about the future. If you can’t see yourself curled up in bed every Sunday morning with her for the rest of your life, Let her go. If you aren’t excited to take her places she’s never been before just to see the look on her face, Let her go. If you don’t love surprising her because you know she hates it, Let her go. If you can picture yourself in a place that you love, and not wish she was there with you, Let her go. If you can imagine your life without her, Let her go. Just please let her go so someone else can love her more. She deserves to be loved.